Dear Family and Friends!
So last night Elder Lee and I got a transfer call and...... Elder Lee is leaving and I will be staying and getting a new companion tomorrow here in Cypress Creek! I am extremely excited to be staying here in Cypress Creek and continue to see the work progress! It's my goal to turn this branch into a ward and miracles are happening daily from the Lord that are allowing this to come forth! This is absolutely and fully the Lords work and he gives me strength every single day to be able to bring to pass his holy purposes!
This week we really saw the power of contacting people on the streets. We bike a lot so we set a goal this week to contact everyone we saw while we were biking. It was amazing to see that we got 21 blessings and we didn't knock on anyones door all week. I know that the Lord puts people in our path as we are walking, biking, or even driving. We must just ALWAYS open our mouths to everyone!
Lately Elder Lee and I have been focusing on developing a different attribute of Christ every single day and we have been seeing miracles come from that!
Faith in Jesus Christ: We must show everyone that we come in contact with that we have complete faith that they will accept the gospel. Christ said, "To him that believeth, all things are possible!" Sometimes we limit ourself but we must have the faith in Christ sufficient to produce miracles!
Hope: We definitely noticed that hope eventually turns into faith when acted upon. When we invite people to be baptized and they accept they hope this things will truly bless their lives. It turns into faith when they keep commitments and eventually get baptized.
Charity: For me one of the most important Christlike attributes. As we show everyone charity they will feel it and be able to tell that we want these things for them not for a number, but because we truly love them.
Virtue: There are so many things in the world today that Satan uses to try and make us unclean. As we have virtue and keep our thoughts clean, then our actions will be clean as well!
Knowledge: As we seek to obtain God's word, then our mouth will be loosed and we will speak from the Spirit. We must obtain the knowledge first though!
Patience: The Lord knows all things. By being patient threw all things we are showing our trust that we have in the Lord. When times get tough as we patiently endure it, then the Lord always gives us a miracle!
Humility: We always must stay humble and as Ammon said know that it's only threw God's strength that we can accomplish anything!
Diligence: As we consistently work hard the Lord always blesses us! Work is the key to any situation, especially in missionary WORK!
Obedience: This is the first law of heaven. If we want blessings from God we must always be exactly obedient in ALL things!
My favorite experience that we had this week in Cypress Creek happened on Saturday! Saturday is always our big day where we go see everyone we are teaching and make sure they are solid for church on the next day. This Saturday we were coming out of an investigators home around five at the top of our area and my bikes back tire was completely flat. But we didn't let that slow us down and immediately we began calling people to find a ride as we were walking swiftly to our next appointment. As we were walking this lady stopped us, expressed a huge desire to change her life, and accepted a baptismal date! Then we continued on and finally found a ride down to the bottom of our area. Then we began running in proslyting clothes from one investigators house to another rounding up as many investigators for church the next day as possible. We saw many miracles and were able to round up many people because of our diligence. We didn't let any adversity stop us, but we continued to push foreword with faith in Christ!
We are very excited for transfer meeting tomorrow as well as to here you and Sister Anderson speak in Cypress Creek on Sunday!
I don't have too much more time so next Sunday I'll write the personal notes dad. But I got the package and thank you it came on my Birthday! I love ya'll and can't wait to here from ya threw letters during the week!
With Love,
Elder Pond
